Product category:
CNC water jet cutting and profiling machines
News Release from: WJS UK | Subject: Profiler at Aquajet Profiles
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 March 2008
Water jet cutting versatility
demonstrated
Water jet cutting is used to profile a very wide range of materials: from 100mm thick armour plate, titanium and stainless steel, through aluminium and down to lightweight foam.
"The key advantage of waterjet cutting, is its ability to profile such an incredibly wide range of materials, which for us is as diverse as 100 mm thickness armour plate, titanium and stainless steel, through aluminium and down to lightweight foam, with everything in between," said Des Willis of Aquajet Profiles, Coventry, UK He was enthusing about the installation of a Water Jet Sweden profiler at his subcontract engineering operation
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 8 Apr 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
10-head water jet machine ups productivity by 50%
A CNC 10-head water jet cutting system with automated load/unload, built to user specification, has increased productivity of graphite/metal gasket profiling by 50%.
Water jet cutting profiles precision metal parts
When Chris Procter set up Leicester Water Jet, he was driven by the knowledge of a lucrative potential market for a sub-contractor able to meet the exacting demands of precision profiled materials.
Willis and co-partner Peter McNeice, said further new business seems to be in prospect each day.
McNeice was working for a laser-cutter business when it added a water jet machine.
He quickly became aware of the many advantages this newly-emerging technology could bring and became very attracted to the idea of capitalizing on them.
Further reading
Waterjet cutting trebles subcontrator's turnover
The extreme versatility of a CNC waterjet cutting and profiling machine - combined with its reliability and quality of cut - have helped increase a subcontractor's turnover by over 200%.
Largest installed waterjet profiler cuts metal
The biggest Water Jet Sweden cutting machine yet to be installed in the UK - at a non-aerospace aluminium plate distributor - has an available cutting area of 4m x 6m.
Water jet glass cutting is quiet, easy to use
Polish automotive glass supplier has found that a high-accuracy water jet cutting machine at their has enabled it to cut-out any size or shape of area easily and economically.
So he put together a business plan that was sufficiently promising to persuade Willis to join forces with him.
Said Willis: "Whilst very attractive, the investment itself turned out to be surprisingly conservative, which is something quite unusual within the engineering sector these days." He said a Water Jet Sweden machine cost only half that of a laser cutter of similar capacity, and yet was able to profile work in a far greater spread of materials.
The outcome has been so successful, said Willis, with the new machine instantly attracting so much new business hat it was possible to self-finance all of the company's plans and further growth is now inevitable.
* High speed versatility - Willis still found it astonishing that he now had a machine that can switch from cutting, say, a piece of tooling steel one minute to a decorative granite slab for a garden feature the next, without any arduous set-up time needed for the changeover.
* Large pump - the 4m x 2m capacity Water Jet Sweden machine, model NC 4020 ED, complements an older cutter of another brand.
It is fed by an unusually large (100HP) KMT pump that was chosen to allow maximum productivity while using both twin heads simultaneously, each fitted with 0 .35 mm orifice diameter nozzles.
Willis said, "As soon as we saw the WJS machine, we recognized that here was a profiler designed by people who were engineers themselves with practical user experience.
The way in which an automatic splash guard has been incorporated that moves into position when profiling, and gets out of the operator's way afterwards, is just one typical example of this attention to detail".
Water Jet Sweden's managing director, Chris Baker, said: "WJS in Sweden has its own flourishing profiling business, operating alongside the main factory, using machines almost identical to the one at Coventry.
There is indeed a constant cross-fertilization of ideas on site between the end users and the makers of the machine, which our designers take on board".
* Technical support and service - the technical support and back-up provided by WJS also drew praise.
Indeed, the Water Jet Sweden machine complements an older one of another brand and it was the lack of such support that prompted the company to look for an alternative machine supplier..
The GE Fanuc CNC control system and programs supplied with the profiler, said Aqua Jet, have been easily assimilated and are proving more than adequate for the job.
Being located on the doorstep of the leading engineering faculty within the Warwick University campus, the possibility of some form of mutually beneficial project work in the future shows promise.
Even after a number of years using the waterjet technology, Willis remained totally enthusiastic about the process and delights in picking on different facets of its appeal.
As a still-practicing metal-cutting engineer, with a thriving subcontracting business of his own, he can't help but point out some of the money-saving advantages waterjet cutting offers.
For example, he cited how splendid it is for there to be no problems arising from the need for swarf handling and is happy that the price available for solid undamaged metal offcuts is so much better than that for oily swarf, especially when dealing with materials such as titanium or stainless steel.
Then there is the speed of cutting with which Willis was able to save a customer some 180h of rough machining time, with far greater metal retention, simply by switching processes.
Willis said: "We can now cut tooling for customers in the time it would have taken just to set it up on a machine tool".
* Accuracy within +/-0.25mm - for engineering applications, the company is able to work to an accuracy of +/-0.25mm, which eliminates the need for second operation work in most cases.
For most of non-engineering work, this level of accuracy is more than sufficient.
Work is split almost 50/50 between pure waterjet and abrasive waterjet cutting and switching from one process to the other presents no problems whatsoever.
Like most of its customers, said Water Jet Sweden to manufacturingtalk, Aquajet Profiles has developed a waterjet cutting expertise of its own as it explores the parameters of the process.
In the case of the Coventry company, it could be entering a special niche market using its capability for 'pocket' cutting, whereby it can produce profiles that do not penetrate right through the base material.
It is also working hard on its own ideas which, by adopting the waterjet cutting principle in directions beyond the scope of this article, it will ensure a bright future for the company.
• WJS UK: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
